Today’s Times cartoon…

Today’s cartoon on the Dissolution of Parliament. Of course, after the fixed term parliament was introduced, the PM doesn’t actually ask the Queen anymore, but you should never let facts get in the way of a gag!

Annoyingly I prefer the rough in my sketchbook to the final piece. That’s not unusual at all, really. The inked-up and painted version often lacks the immediacy and energy of the initial scribble. In this case though I think the composition and caricatures are better in the rough as well. Done before I got reference pictures out and started to obsess about background details and accuracy. Usually I would’ve edited those details out, but in the case of this particular cartoon, I thought the contrast between the elaborate setting and the punch line would help the gag. That was the idea anyway. It’s possible the background takes far too much attention away and just having the Queen shouting “Hell yes!” would’ve been effective enough.